1. Requiem For a White MC.
Pete Nice of 3rd Bass – one time rival of the Beastie Boys – memorializes fellow Brooklynite, Adam Yauch, and comes to terms with the “Elk’s Club for white boys who rhymed on records for Def Jam.”
[ Gawker ]

2. Show & AG On The Bronx, Watching Grandmaster Flash Back In The Day, And Stereotypes In Hip-Hop.
The BX ambassadors share some truth. Show on today’s rap scene: “This isn’t really a complaint, just an observation. My main thing is that now you’re forced to listen to one style of hip-hop, at least on the radio and in videos anyway. There’s only one lane really being shown… All of us aren’t like that, though. Everybody from the hood isn’t a street nigga.”
[ Village Voice ]

3. Track-by-Track: El-P Unveils Cancer4Cure .
Co-Flo MC/producer chops it up about every cut on his new LP.
[ The Skinny ]

4. Fresh Air Remembers Maurice Sendak.
Brooklyn’s finest – one of the most important children’s writers/illustrators of all-time, who passed away this week at 83 – is remembered via print interview excerpts, audio, and more.
[ NPR ]

5. Looking Back at Huey Newton’s Thoughts on Gay Rights… In the Wake of Obama’s Endorsement.
Via Bay Area rap scholar Davey D, a transcript of a speech given by the co-founder of the Black Panther Party on August 15, 1970: “… Sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the women or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with. We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people.”
[ Davey D’s Hip-Hop Corner ]

6. UCLA Video Game Art Festival Features Caine’s Arcade Made by a 9-Year-Old, and More.
Caine (Monroy)’s Arcade – the East L.A. DIY cardboard arcade that became an Internet sensation – enjoys a showcase alongside more adult endeavors devoted to women in jail and teenaged Russian nicotine addicts. Welcome to the big time, kid.
[ LA Weekly ]